Friday, August 15, 2014

Papermaking Round 9

Now I'm getting somewhere. I went back to using the dispersion method with the deckle. The pour method is easier, cleaner, and uses 1/4 of the water, but I can reduce the water requirements (which was all of a gallon for this batch) by making a lot of paper in each batch. I was surprised with how many sheets I got out of the same amount of pulp and, as one might figure, the sheets are smoother and more consistent now. They're also more flexible so they can fold without cracking now.

Now that I have a process I can work with I'll be working on refining how the sheet's dry and mass production. I'd also like to experiment with using various additives like food coloring, hydrogen peroxide, and gelatin to see how they affect the end result. Get a little more chemistry going in my vat.

Batch #10 is pulped and waiting until I have time to mold it into sheets. I would guess that it's at least 20 sheets of paper worth of pulp (currently sitting in a gallon bucket as a 50/50 mix of pulp and water) so that'll be pretty representative of where I'd like to be with the final process.